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Mary Newsom, Wal-mart, And What Causes Us To Pay

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Originally from The Charlotte Capitalist ™,

Welcome to Wal-Mart world, where we all pay says Mary Newsom at The Charlotte Observer. Mary complains:

Yet even more troubling is this: A Wal-Mart memo, made public last month, said 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart employees have no health insurance or are on Medicaid.

Who's paying to keep Wal-Mart's prices low? We are -- we who pay state taxes and county property taxes. Even our hospital bills expand to cover hospitals' costs of caring for the uninsured.

This statement gives the impression that Wal-Mart is the cause of high Medicaid expenses. But then she follows:

To be sure, most Medicaid recipients aren't Wal-Mart employees. Only about 5 percent of Wal-Mart workers are on Medicaid.

Where is the context for these statements? Is 5% high or low compared to other large companies? Mary does not share.

She then complains: And Medicaid costs are gobbling N.C. county budgets faster than teenagers gobble pizza.

Mecklenburg will spend about $25 million on Medicaid this year, Gaston County about $14 million. In 48 N.C. counties, Medicaid spending costs more than school construction. The state budget spends $8 billion for Medicaid.

Again, no context. Is she blaming Wal-Mart for this or just throwing this in to give you the impression that Wal-Mart is the problem? There is no way to tell from her column.

She then adds:

To be fair, most retail pay and benefits are paltry. The mom-and-pop stores that tank when Wal-Mart moves in likely didn't pay health insurance, either.

So what is the point then with respect to Wal-Mart? She has none.

Also:

But Wal-Mart, where full-time workers average $9.68 an hour, is one of the top employers in most N.C. counties. In 47 counties, it's in the top 10, and in 16 -- including Cabarrus, Iredell and Rutherford -- it's in the top five. It ranks 13th in Mecklenburg County.

$9.68 is approximately 50% higher than the minimum wage. Unions did not negotiate this rate. Wal-Mart pays this rate to attract good people. I doubt the companies who failed to compete with Wal-Mart were paying workers this good of a rate.

But the real problem with the column is that she criticizes Wal-Mart for trying to manage its expenses by hiring healthy people. Of course, they are. In fact, all companies should do this. It is not Wal-Mart that is driving up medical expenses. It is Medicare. Under Medicare, you don't have to worry about most of your medical expenses. Other taxpayers (present and future) will take care of you. So don't worry if you smoke, drink, get obese, or generally don't take care of yourself. Someone else will be responsible.

Mary warns us about a "Wal-Mart world". I am hoping for a Wal-Mart world. In a Wal-Mart world, "we" all do *not* pay. It is the Medicare world where "we" all pay. In the Wal-Mart world that Mary fears, you and I pay for only what we want at a highly competent retailer. Wal-Mart can not force you and me to work for it. We only work for Wal-Mart if it wants us to and we agree to the terms. We have the right to disagree by not working there.

In the end, it is the right to disagree which Mary is against. And it is ideas such as hers, when put into action, which really causes all of us to pay.

Edited by softwareNerd
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